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West Plains Story Tour

West Plains Story Tour

The West Plains Story Tour starts at the civic center south parking lot and goes along E. Main Street, past the old library with the original spring which served Native American people who lived in the region. Next door is the site of the “Dance Hall Explosion” that nearly decimated a generation of West Plains’ youth. It continues around the square for stories of the shoot-out between the Barker and the Corpus Gangs, the Civil War skirmish for the courthouse, highlighting the architectural detail and historic authenticity that earned the National Historic Registry designation. Stories about the Aid Hardware Building, the Opera House and the courthouse come alive. Down Washington Avenue we pass by the Avenue Theater community arts restoration and the Ozarks Small Business Incubator in the old Butler Building.

Continue across Broadway (across the RR tracks), to the historic school for African American students on top of Washington Hill. Lincoln school, a small building which housed the only African American educational facility in the county and the larger area encompassing southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, holds memories for many of its former students. Members of that community settled in Howell County after the Civil War, survived the Jim Crow era, school desegregation, and became pillars of the community.  The Washington Avenue Church of Christ, across from the school, stands out as an important community voice. These sites produced stories and songs of resilience through times of conflict and resolution.

Back down Washington Avenue, right on Trish Knight Drive takes us past the Yellow House Community Arts Center, the home of Polly Langston, and the first buildings of the MSU-WP campus, which includes the Smith-London Bell Tower, amphitheater, and the Kellett home where stories of the early residents and founding families are still alive. A slight jog off of Preacher Roe takes in the Stricklin Home on Monks Street between Leyda and Worchester.  Left on Worchester take us up the hill to the Harlin Museum, the home of the L.L. Broadfoot collection, Pioneers of the Ozarks, a world-class example of ethnographic art depicting country people from the Ozarks hills Cir. 1944.  As we move down the hill, we see the back of the square and more historic buildings – the First Presbyterian Church, the Zorn Building, All Saints Episcopal Church, and the Victorian homes on Grace Avenue.

The last tour site is Oak Lawn Cemetery, where once each year on the holiday others call Memorial Day, but which is celebrated here as Decoration Day, townspeople join with families and friends who come from afar, bringing flowers, to visit and share stories catching up on current events as well as reminisce about the field’s permanent residents, from war heroes and others whose deeds and actions built this place, to the young folks killed in the West Plains Explosion. They tell their own stories while distributing flowers and flags to decorate the graves of those they once held close. And nearly everyone, including the tourists, manage to call at the grave of Polly Langston, beloved community-wide, buried in the Langston family plot. Newspapers nationwide marked her passing, and her story still draws visitors to make a small detour while passing through. The cemetery site is the wellspring for the stories shared today at graveside, fireside, and front porches of the town.

The tour returns to the West Plains Civic Center.